Fei Lai and Zhu Shenshen/ Shanghai Daily news

Scott Wu, an advertising company executive, gets up early each day, logs onto Kaixin001.com, buys up some virtual slaves, fights over parking space and then goes to work - a contented man.

Like Scott, hordes of Chinese people are getting hooked on Kaixin, a social networking site with games like "Friend for Sale" and "Parking Wars."

The total obsession of workers with these games has sent alarm bells ringing through corporate offices.

Company managers feel that employees are spending too much time on these sites, affecting efficiency and productivity.

"Networking sites are the biggest priority in my life now. Even at work I tend to log onto the Website, the minute I am unoccupied," Wu confessed.

Alarmed by the invasion of Kaixin, companies like Accenture Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd have blocked the Website, saying that it is hurting the productivity of employees, according to a report in the Oriental Morning Post. "It is really inappropriate to spend time on social networking sites during work hours. It is so big a distraction that it poses a huge challenge for office administrators," said Daniel Ju, general manager of Shanghai VIPCare Co Ltd.